


Do You Believe In Magic

by Varewulf



Series: Bandori Superpowers AU [18]
Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Fluff, Gen, Superpowers AU, magical girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 09:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18340667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varewulf/pseuds/Varewulf
Summary: Aya decides to meet with the SPA Club, who are very excited about meeting a real magical girl.





	Do You Believe In Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Finally back at it after so long. It's a while since the Bandori anime drama resolved itself to a point where I was no longer too upset to write. Episode 10? Or 11? But like a couple of days before that episode aired, I got started on a [large original fic project](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18073502) that ended up taking all of my time. I'm proud of how it turned out, but I was pretty brain-dead after its completion. Getting back into writing other stuff took me another week. And now it's been over six weeks since I posted Incursion, my last Bandori fic, and also the previous entry in this series. Sorry I kept you all waiting.
> 
> I could go deeper into my thoughts about how BanG Dream S2 turned out, but I won't. Maybe somewhere else.
> 
> I started this fic before I went on my break, so about a third of it was already done once before I started back up. It essentially just turned into more world-building, back-story, and Aya appreciation. No romantic fluff this time. But coupled with the lewd side-fic I did a couple of days ago, I'm feeling okay with my return. I've gotten the ball rolling again. Not sure what is next, but I noted down some ideas that popped up during my hiatus, even if I couldn't write them right away.
> 
> There is another original idea I'd like to try doing, but I'm gonna focus on fanfics again for a while. At least until I decide if I want to do anything more with Because I Love You.

" _Now for the news._ "

Tsugumi turned the volume up a couple notches.

* * *

" _Several people reported a disturbance north-west of Edogawa City's downtown area yesterday afternoon._ "

Sayo paid close attention, which made Hina also look at the TV with curiosity.

* * *

" _However, when our reporter crew arrived on the scene, no signs of any damage or disturbance were found._ "

Misaki still had a hard time believing what she had seen. And done.

* * *

" _Interviewed locals alleged there had been a giant monster, but we have been unable to verify any such claims._ "

Maya glanced down towards her foot, trying to ignore the vision of teeth.

* * *

" _Official sources say the police are conducting an investigation._ "

Arisa looked down at her buttered piece of toast. "That's it?" she mumbled.

* * *

Aya was feeling rather awkward. Sayo had to be watching her, probably with a disapproving glare, but she was too nervous to actually look and see. It was making it a bit hard to focus on class. And every break between classes she expected her classmate to come over, and demand answers. Yet so far there had been nothing. The next break would be lunch, and then...

Not that she didn't have questions of her own. Sayo had actually floated in the air. Or had she simply imagined it because of the shock of seeing them all? What were they all doing together, anyway? Moca and Tsugumi were in the same band, but otherwise... Arisa, Misaki, Sayo, and Maya. All from different bands. Seeing a couple of them together wouldn't have been so strange, but all six was a different matter. Had they all happened upon the same area at the same time, or were they together from the start?

It was all a mess. And she was expected to talk to them? The Guardians had said the girls had something they wanted to share with her as well. But they hadn't told her how much she was allowed to say. Surely the full scope couldn't be revealed to just anyone, even if they were her friends. But she had already told Chisato more than she probably should have. Not to mention what Chisato had told her. But Chisato was... and the girls were...

The bell rang, and Aya jumped. She had completely lost track of her surroundings. Couldn't remember a single word the teacher had said. She looked at the blackboard, and almost nothing on there looked familiar. Had she spaced out for the entire class?

She finally glanced towards Sayo, but her classmate was neither glaring at her, nor was she coming in Aya's direction. She was calmly packing up her things, and taking out her lunch. Yesterday she had said that Aya owed them all an explanation. Maybe she was right. The could be what the Guardians had given her the green light to do.

She made her decision, got up from her desk, and headed towards Sayo's.

"Sayo-chan."

Sayo looked up at her. "Maruyama-san?"

"I... I suppose we should talk..." Aya said. She still felt a little nervous, but she would do her best.

* * *

The club had gotten together as soon as possible, and Aya found herself in a room not with six others, but eight. While she hadn't seen them at the time, Ako and Rinko had also shown up for the meeting. She had to wonder how long they had been doing these meetings. Everyone in the room was watching her. Some more intently than others. She felt nervous again, but she had gotten a lot of practice talking in front of a crowd during her time with Pastel*Palettes.

Everyone had introduced themselves, and what they could do, so now it was her turn.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Maruyama Aya, though hopefully you already knew that. Aspiring idol, Pas*Pal's vocalist, and certified hard worker." Thankfully no one asked 'certified by who'. "And... uh... also..." She questioned one more time whether it was okay to say this. Surely that had to have been what the Guardians meant. "I am... a magical girl." There were some gasps, even from those she had seen at the scene.

"Y-you're really... a real one?" Rinko asked. Her eyes were sparkling.

"Yes."

"For super real?" Ako asked. Her expression was very similar to Rinko's.

"Uh... yes."

"Wow..."

"So, listen-"

Aya was about to say something when Ako suddenly bounced out of her chair. "You were so cool, Aya-senpai! When you just came in like nyoom, smack!" Rinko was nodding along. "And then it was all whoosh! Grr, pyuun, bam!" Ako was gesturing with her arms, and striking poses along with her sound effects.

That wasn't exactly how Aya remembered it, but... "Ehehe, thanks~," she said. It felt nice to hear, even if it was making her blush. "Wait, you were there too?"

Ako nodded. "Yeah, with Rin-rin. We were... um... hiding. Nothing else. Definitely nothing dangerous." Something about how she said that made it seem less than convincing.

Rinko could turn invisible, so in that sense it wasn't strange that Aya hadn't seen them. It had been a bit much to learn about everyone, and she was still trying to sort it all out in her mind.

"How does that work, anyway? How do you become a magical girl?" Arisa asked.

Aya sat back down. "Well, I was granted my rod right before my tenth birthday. A messenger appeared, and said I had been chosen. Asked if I would accept the power. I was barely 10, so... of course I said yes." She wasn't sure what she would have said if she had been asked currently. Probably something like: 'You must have the wrong person.'

"A me-"

Ako gasped. "You're the chosen one!"

"Huh?" Well, that was technically correct, since she had been chosen, but 'chosen one' had somewhat different implications. Aya wondered if that was going too far.

"That's so cool!" Ako was so excited that she was interrupting the others.

"Did you bring it?" Maya asked.

Aya blushed a little. "Uh... yes." She reached into her bag, and took her magic rod out.

Maya leaned closer, and pushed her glasses up. "It's the same one you brought to training that one time, right?"

"Yes..." Aya still felt embarrassed about that.

"Can I hold it?" "C-can I hold it?" Two voices spoke at almost the exact same time: Maya and Rinko.

Aya looked back and forth between. "Well..."

Maya sat back. "I'm okay with Shirokane-san going first," she said, and smiled.

Aya wasn't sure how she felt about someone else holding it, but it was hard to say no to the expression on Rinko's face.

"It's fine... if you don't..."

"It's okay," Aya said, and handed it to her classmate. "Just be careful. It _should_ only respond to me, but I've never actually tested it. So I don't know what it would do to someone else." Probably nothing bad. The Guardians seemed pretty careful about their magic not harming humans.

Even with the warning, Rinko's eyes shone like gemstones as she held the rod. "It's just like on TV... so pretty..." Apparently she couldn't help herself from holding it like magical girls from various shows did. Aya recognised some of the poses.

"Can I too?" Ako asked. "I promise I'll be super careful."

Aya agreed to letting it be passed around to anyone who wanted to have a closer look. It felt strangely satisfying to have people so interested.

When it was passed to her, Arisa regarded the rod with more reverence than Aya had expected. She seemed completely transfixed.

"So what did you mean by messenger?" Arisa asked after passing it on. That was probably what she had tried to ask earlier before Ako interrupted her.

"Oh." Well, she had told Chisato as much, so it was probably okay if she let these girls know too. "From the Guardians."

"Guardians?"

"They're the source of my power." Or at least they were in charge of the power. Aya wasn't exactly sure which was correct. "And my managers, I suppose. They let me know if any invaders show up, like the other day."

"Then I suppose I should thank them too," Maya said. "If you had showed up even a couple of seconds later..."

"Ehehe... I should have been even faster, to be honest. But it's been four years, so I'm out of practice. I'm sorry about that..." It had been really close to people getting seriously hurt, and that was honestly unacceptable.

Everyone seemed a little shocked.

" _That_ was you out of practice?" Misaki asked.

"B-but you took it out in one shot." Maya said.

"Well, it was a really weak one." Aya had honestly no idea why that thing had thought it stood any chance. She hadn't fought anything that weak since her first year. Or possibly second. Her power level had increased the more she fought, so that might have messed with her perspective.

"A-a weak one?" Tsugumi was staring at her, and so were most of the others.

"I mean, it couldn't even withstand one Justice Ray." Granted that wasn't usually one of Aya's opening attacks, but she hadn't exactly been in a mood to do the usual routine. If it had been knocked over, it would have made for an easy finisher, and if it hadn't budged, she would have had to get serious.

Ako gasped again. "Justice Ray!"

Aya winced as she realised what she had said. "L-listen, I-"

"That's so cool!"

"Huh?" Aya had been about to say she had named most of her attacks herself when she was 10-11, and then any new attacks as she came up with them. It was a little embarrassing to say them out loud, but it had slipped out without thinking.

"Is that one of your ultimate attacks?" Ako asked.

"Huh? No... more like... a medium attack, I guess?" She tried to remember if she used to have any sort of official ranking for her attacks, but she had typically fought more on instinct. Just using whatever felt right, and it had almost never steered her wrong.

"So wait, you have even stronger ones?" Arisa's eyebrows raised.

"Yup. An attack like that wouldn't really do much against stronger enemies." It could get their attention, but she imagined it felt like a bee sting at most.

"Strange." The rod had passed onto Sayo now, whose curiosity seemed more analytical than awestruck. "It looks like a toy, but I can feel a weird hum within it. Almost like the vibrations from when I thrum my guitar strings." She looked up. "So what was that thing, exactly?" There was no doubt what she was referring to.

"An invader. At least, that's what the Guardians call them. I don't know if they have anything they call themselves. They're usually not very talkative." There had been a few exceptions, but she had still been surprised at hearing the one from the other day speak to her. "They come from a different dimension, and want to destroy all life in ours."

"A-and you fight those things all the time?" Tsugumi asked.

Aya shook her head. "No, it's the first time I've seen one in over four years. I honestly thought it was all over. They told me it was over..." No other types of threats had shown up either, as if word had spread among all of them. If only the Guardians had properly explained things back then... maybe she still wouldn't have understood. But they could have tried.

"Will there be more~?" Moca was examining the rod.

"Probably not," Aya replied. Then noted the way everyone was looking at her. "Listen, it's hard to say for certain. They don't exactly have a schedule. But it should have been over. It was a huge surprise that one appeared after all this time. Hopefully the rest take the hint that they still don't stand a chance."

The final battle had taken place in space. It had started with Aya going into a dimensional rift above the planet. She didn't know if that plane had any name. After all of their invasions had been stopped, the largest, and strongest of the invaders, who was ostensibly their leader, had decided to try to kill the whole solar system by snuffing out the sun. The invaders didn't really have a rigid leadership structure as far as the Guardians were aware, but no one was going to argue with a being that powerful if it told them to do something.

The plan had been to take it out before it could enter our dimension completely. Our reality rejects them, so it takes effort for them to breach through. And the stronger they are, the more effort is needed. So even if it meant fighting the thing on its own turf where it would be stronger, it had been judged a better option than letting it cross over first. The gamble had been that maybe the effort of crossing over would prevent it from fighting at full power. Though it had still been plenty powerful.

It hadn't been easy by any measure. And it had nearly failed. The creature had gotten through, and for several minutes it had existed in orbit above Earth. The battle had been explosive enough that it could be seen through telescopes. Even if it was impossible to capture footage of it, there had been some accidental witnesses. While Aya was far too small to be seen even by the best lenses, the creature itself, and the effects caused by their attacks going back and forth had been possible to make out. No one believed the stories, of course.

What had tipped the scales was when the monster tried to break away, and head for the sun. That had given Aya enough of an opening to create a large enough sealing net, and trap the invader before it could really build up speed. Then she had channelled the full might of planet Earth through herself to crush the thing once and for all. In space no one could hear it scream.

Aya had been exhausted as she fell back to the surface. Then the next morning after she had recovered thanks to the Guardians' healing power, she had been told it was over.

"So why isn't this all over the net?" Misaki asked. "We saw people take photos, film, and maybe even stream. Yet Ako and I haven't been able to find anything."

"A government cover-up~?" Moca suggested.

Aya shook her head. "No. It's just... impossible to get any footage or recording of them, or of me as a magical girl. It all becomes static. The magic sees to that."

"Magic..." Sayo didn't sound like she approved of the concept. "If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would have refused to believe it."

Aya had to smile. It sounded remarkably similar to what Chisato's mother had said.

"What about the others~?" Moca asked. "Magical girls always have teams, right~?"

"Ah... no, it was only me." Real life wasn't quite like TV, unfortunately.

"Oh..."

"It feels weird that I can't read any of this from your mind," Arisa commented. "It's like there's nothing up there regarding you being a magical girl. Only normal stuff." The magic was probably to blame for that too.

"Um..." Rinko spoke up. "Could you... transform? I didn't get... a good look... last time..." She was blushing, but if she was willing to say it out loud, it had to be important to her.

Aya didn't have the heart to refuse. "Sure." The rod had finally passed around back to Maya, so she retrieved it from her, and stepped away from the others. "Make sure to stay back," she warned them. Though because she felt rather self-conscious at the moment, she skipped saying any transformation phrases. It had been embarrassing enough to say it in front of Chisato. Instead she just focused on releasing the magic within the rod, and letting it envelop her.

"Whooooaaaaaaaa!" Ako was the first to make her way over to Aya once the transformation was complete, but most of the others were out of their seats too. "That's so amazing!"

"The outfit is... really cute," Rinko said.

"It even made your hair grow longer." Arisa's eyes were sparkling.

"Ehehehe~." Aya felt happy about the attention. After hiding it from everyone for so long, it was nice to be able to share it.

"It's seriously impressive." Even Misaki couldn't keep herself from commenting.

Aya looked at them all. Being praised was nice, but... "To be honest, I think all of you are more impressive. You have these special powers no matter what. You were willing to jump into danger even though you didn't need to, and weren't trained for it. I have my duty, but... without this..." She looked down at her rod. "I'm nothing."

"That's not true," Tsugumi said immediately.

"You always work hard, and do your best, Aya-san," Maya said. "You set a good example for me, and for everyone in Pastel*Palettes, I think."

Ako suddenly hugged her. "Yeah, you're great, Aya-senpai!"

"Heh... thank you."

"And you really go naked while you transform, huh?" Ako added.

Aya went bright red. "Y-you saw that?!" It hadn't even occurred to her that Ako's special sight might pick up on that. She felt like she could die from sheer embarrassment.

* * *

Aya fell onto the bed in her room. That meeting had been a lot. Even as someone who was a big fan of magical girls herself, she hadn't expected them all to be quite so excited about it. Thankfully it had calmed down towards the end, and they had been able to actually talk about some other things too. Though she realised there was one thing she had completely forgotten to bring up.

_~Guardians?~_

_~AYA.~_

_~Oh.~_

_~YOU SEEM SURPRISED WE ANSWERED.~_

_~Sorry.~_

_~IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE. WE WILL NEED TO REGAIN YOUR TRUST.~_

They were probably right, even if Aya felt bad about mistrusting them.

_~I was wondering. Were you responsible for the triggering event that Chisato-chan mentioned? That gave the girls their powers?~_

_~WE WERE NOT.~_

_~Do you know who was?~_ Or maybe 'what' was a more correct question.

There was a pause. _~OUR APOLOGIES, BUT WE ARE NOT AT LIBERTY TO SAY.~_

_~Huh?~_

_~ALL WE CAN SAY IS THAT WE ARE NOT THE ONLY POWER AT PLAY IN THIS WORLD.~_

_~Oh. I... okay.~_ Aya had a feeling she wouldn't get anywhere even if she tried pushing further.

So what did that mean? Were the Guardians only responsible for part of the Earth's defence? Or were they responsible for defence, while others handled other things? Were they in charge of magic? So many questions, so few answers. It felt like there were secrets everywhere.


End file.
